Ship of the Line
Definition A Ship of the Line is a massive class of war vessel first constructed in the late 16th century and on into the mid 19th century. Their name is derived from the battle strategy of a fleet forming a single line of their heaviest ships using their combined broadside guns at their enemy. Vessels varied in size from two-decked fifty-gun ships up to four-decked fortresses carrying over 130 cannons. Historically, these ships were built for large naval confrontations but were often ill-equipped to deal with the lighter, faster ships employed by privateers and pirates. Spain's King Phillip sent a massive Spanish Armada to attack England on the late 1500's(Which lost to England, but many of the ships were lost at sea in a storm before arrival, sealing the armada's fate). Many of the ships in the Spanish Armada were Ships of the Line.(Other great examples of real life sea battles involving ships of the line are the Battle of the Nile and Battle of Trafalgar in the 1800's) The "Ship of the Line" would usually have bronze cannons. The cannons on the lower decks would usually use forty-two pound cannons used for blasting away at other "Ship of the Line's" these cannons were about twice the size of a twelve pound cannon. The cannons at the top deck where 12 pound cannons and were usually used to take out other cannons or crew members. These cannons were about a foot or two higher than a man. NOTE: Three ships of the line were used on the attack on New York during the Revolutionary War. Fortresses at Sea In Pirates Online, it first appeared as the Goliath, and then as level 79-81 Expedition Fleet vessels. As for now, they are boss ships of the EITC and Royal Navy Treasure Fleets. They are the most powerful ships to be found in the Caribbean. They have formidable hulls, capable of withstanding huge amounts of damage. They have 14 above Deck Guns and 24 Broadside Cannons, distributed between THREE broadside gun decks- the max for pirate ships being two. The ammunition they use varies from Round Shot, Firebrand, Chain Shot, to Explosives. In addition to being powerful vessels in their own right, these ships are accompanied by a group of Navy Elite or EITC Tyrant escort ships when leading Treasure Fleets. Also the Battle-Royale and the Tally-ho, are both warships , which are ships of the line. Ship of the Line Class Vessels *HMS Newcastle - Fires Chain Shot/Firebrand *HMS Invincible - Fires Explosive/Round Shot *HMS Goliath - Only encountered during the Black Pearl Boss Battle. Fires Round Shot and Firebrand. *HMS Victory - Fires Firebrand/Explosive Note: HMS stands for His/Her Majesty's Ship only in Royal Navy treasure fleets *EITC Leviathan - Fires Chain Shot/Firebrand *EITC Conqueror - Fires Chain Shot/Explosive *EITC Intrepid - Fires Firebrand/Round Shot Bounty Hunter Ships of the Line The ships will follow a wanted pirate until the ends of the world; or until sunk. They are extremely dangerous and can even appear together! *Battle-Royale *Tally-ho 'Escort Ships' To date, except for the Goliath and Bounty Hunters, no Ship of the Line has been spotted without smaller, but still powerful, craft protecting it. These Heavy war frigates form a circle around the larger ship and travel alongside until it reaches its destination. Should any vessel open fire on them or the Ship of the Line, then ALL of the escorts will work in unison to sink the offending vessel. They also have very long range Broadsides, so watch out! 'EITC' *EITC Tyrant 'Navy' *Navy Elite Noted Ships of the Line *Dauntless - Massive Ship of the Line under command of Commodore James Norrington. *Endeavour - A 106-gun three-decked Ship of the Line that led Lord Beckett's armada. Game Notes On August 2nd, 2010, the Ship of the Line could be bought on the Test Server from a Shipwright for 200,000 gold pieces (The maximum amount of gold a pirate can have). This no longer appears for sale on Live or Test Servers. Originally, Pirates Online officially stated that it is not ready to release this feature. However, it was later confirmed that the Ship of the Line will not be released for Live Players to use, and that it was an accident to release it in the first place. Test Server Release Notes - August 3rd, 2010 *Removed new ship types from the Shipwrights. This feature is not ready for release and needs further development. *With the Raven's Cove update, the Ship of the Line's flags are no longer Navy class. The ships now have white sails pertaining to a pirate ship. Nship_1.jpg File:Nship_10.jpg N_Ship_of_the_line_4.jpg Ship_Of_The_Line.jpg Screenshot_2010-09-17_14-00-17.jpg Ship_line.jpg Ship_of_line.jpg Ship_of_a_line.jpg Ship_of_the_line.jpg Battle-Royale.png screenshot_2011-06-23_22-34-38.jpg|The Ship of the Line under full sail! screenshot_2011-06-25_09-37-32.jpg|Side View #1 screenshot_2011-06-25_09-37-27.jpg|Side View #2 screenshot_2011-06-25_09-37-18.jpg|Side View #3 Screenshot_2011-06-23_22-34-38.jpg Category:Ships Category:Ship of the Line Category:Featured Article